The Family (Or most of them)

October 8, 2008

Debating the Debates

Just a little cleaning up to do after the U.S. presidential debate this week...

Who knows for sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if more Canadians tuned into this week's debate in Nashville between Barack Obama and John McCain than they have for the Canadian election debates.

Both countries, of course, have election campaigns going on now. Canada votes on Oct. 14. The Americans vote in early November.

Due to late work nights, some genuine apathy and other issues, I haven't watched one Canadian debate. The only debate I DID watch was the one in Nashville this week. So, several observations.

First, I'd give Obama a B+ for his performance in Nashville. He looked polished, authoritative, reasoned, confident and showed great restraint, in my view, when McCain took stupid cheap shots.

I'd give McCain a D-. I thought he looked wooden, rehearsed, arrogant and he was constantly on the attack. He didn't speak TO the people the way Obama can. It was like he was talking DOWN to people.

I think it's pretty clear now that Obama will win. Any objective person who pays attention to body language and listens to ideas would come to that conclusion, as far as I'm concerned.

So that's my two cents as a non-voting observer who's not trying to hide that he's supported Obama from the get-go.

Now some other points.

If you didn't see the Nashville debate, look at the images above. It was an interesting, one-on-one townhall format that says something about the dynamism of America itself and its ability to make something exciting.

Now to be fair, and I say this proudly, Canadians probably have a worldwide image of being more global neutrals and pacifists and reasoned -- in other words, a lot more like Obama than McCain -- than Americans.

In other words, not so much flash and panache, as a nation, but more measured, maybe...more open to others' opinions, less likely to storm the bastions and invade Iraq without just cause and more likely to want everyone to sit down and talk.

And I don't say that as an insult to any individual American. Having backpacked through Europe, the Middle East, India and other places, I can vouch for it.

If you had a Canadian maple leaf sewn on your backback, you were always welcomed. Americans? Well, not so much, just because of worldwide perceptions and images.

Right or wrong, America is seen as the all-powerful invader that goes wherever it likes for its own benefit (most of the time) or at least for its allies' benefit and stomps on anything in its way. It's true.

As a Canadian who has loathed Dubya from the get-go, I see in Obama an open, intelligent, sensible saviour much like our own Liberal prime minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau of the 1960s and 1970s -- my lone Canadian political hero.

So that's a segway, of some sort, back into the Canadian election...and the nimrods we have to choose from that head five parties, only two of whom are credible and have a real chance at winning.

They are the Conservatives' Harper, a Bush clone/lapdog who has held a minority government for the past two years and who called this election, and the Liberals' Stephane Dion.

As much as I like the left-leaning Layton of the socialist NDP, the rest of Canada has never voted in his party for government. The other two are marginal.

Duceppe of the Bloc Quebecois leads a one-province party from Quebec that wants to separate from Canada. He's intelligent but he's a one-cause party. Good luck. May's Green Party wants us all to, of course, go green.

We're not ready for that.

So let's focus on Harper and Dion. Dion, first of all, is from Quebec. He has a very heavy French accent and is hard for the rest of us understand.

He looks like a bookworm, isn't very verbose and doesn't speak fluently or very well in the language that most Canadians speak. I'm sure he's super intelligent and very able. But he's not smooth in an Anglais sort of way.

However, his party is the party I have almost exclusively supported throughout my voting years. So I'm caught in a conundrum.

If I had to vote today -- and actually, hell, I'll have to vote on Tuesday -- he'd get my vote.

He'd better be praying that millions of Canadians feel the same way.

But Harper, the ultra-smooth, say-nothing, do-nothing doe-head from Alberta, also might want to start praying.

This guy ran for the leadership of the right-wing Reform Party several years ago, and lost. So he ran away crying and became the head guy at a right-wing think-tank in Calgary.

The Reform Party, because of its ultra right-wing views, could never get elected east of Alberta.

So they quietly died and the Conservatives, who had been banished to the political wilderness, absorbed them all, including Harper. When the Liberals got involved in a messy political scandal, the Conservatives re-emerged.

Guess who was leading them? Harper. With the Liberals in complete disarray, they won a minority government and have been lame ducks ever since.

Harper called this election and here we are, voting before the Americans do.

And basically, we have to choose between a doofus conservative who hasn't a clue and a francophone scholar who can't communicate with the majority of the Canadian electorate.

Why, I ask, does Harper need six Canadian flags behind him? Wouldn't one do? Or is this an inferiority complex showing through?

Or is he just trying to outdo his political hero, Dubya?

My biggest wish -- for America and for Canada -- is that we end up with two governments, come the end of November, that are middle of the road, sensible, feeling, sensitive, reasoned and calm.

Which is anything BUT what we've had for past eight years in America and the past two years or so in Canada.

9 comments:

I missed the second debate, although I wish I had watched it. I did, however read some snippets on the internet. I really want to believe that the country will make the best choice for our next president, but I can't help but be a bit pessimistic...after all, remember the whole Gore/Bush fiasco! lol

I admit that last week I watched the spirited American VP debate instead of the somber Canadian round table discussion..but I only watched a bit of the Presidential debate..

I think that I've hit the wall on the whole political scene. The American thing has been going on for years now...I thought that McCain would inch by before the financial meltdown and recession..this will help Obama win..barring any unforseen catastrophes, assassination attempts, or terrorist attacks, Barack will win..barely.

I think we'll end up with a minority government again with Harper. That's just my pessimistic gut feeling. And I absolutely hate that I feel, once again, like I have to vote strategically and not necessarily vote for the party that most supports my own views on various issues.

By the way, I really liked our round table discussion format compared to the american debate format. The only thing I'd change is exclude the Bloc - those treasonous bastards.

I DO have faith that enough Americans will see past McCain's veneer, put away the race card and do what's right -- for America, first, but for all of us too.

America IS the Beautiful, it just developed a really, really bad case of ugly the past eight years.

It can be beautiful again, using its power and might and moxy to make the world a better place.

And B.O.'s the guy to do it.

DC:

NICE BEARD! How did you do that? I'm thinking of growing a strike beard.

I'd hope that this financial meltdown isn't the only reason America would switch to Obama.

Like, what more do they need to see? Obama's nailing McCain to the cross -- he can't deny he's been part of the Bush regime and he can't deny that Bush, in the end, is responsible for this meltdown because of his deregulatory bent.

I think Obama will win big-time.

Anna:

And the Reform party is totally forgettable, although I did like some things about Preston Manning.

I have no doubt you're right about another minority Harper government. And the first question that would raise is, why did he call this stupid election in the first place?

If that happens, he will have dug his own grave. The Libs will dump Dion, come up with a better leader and the Tories will be blown out of the water and Harper can slink back to the foothills.

Gotcha on the debate format thing re Canada vs. the U.S. It's just ours is so staid compared to their big made for TV production...

This has been an exciting election season! I do hope Obama wins, but I fear for his safety and worry about the racism that seems to be part of the core of the American nation; for a land that champions democracy and freedom, our wealth and power was built on slavery, the subjugation of an entire race and their descendants. We went to civil war 150 years ago just to establish that slavery was wrong; but it was only 50 years ago was it made the law of the land that "separate but equal" is unconstitutional. Still, those racist sentiments exist.

That mentality of us vs them is still very present in the middle age and elderly generation. I have hope that my generation can see past color and hold high a person's character. The problem with my generation has always been that we are dreamers, slow to action. It has shown in our poor showing during elections despite our vocal support for candidates we believed in. I'm hopeful that we don't just talk the talk this time, but we go ahead and walk the walk. I'm hopeful that we all go out and vote, to take action to bring about the change we so desperately need.

The world of Farcebook

I have kids on Farcebook. And friends. And a fiance. And all are very intelligent human beings.

I am on Farcebook myself. But it is the TV of life now. It is the simple, devoid of ideas, unintelligent way of humans communicating. I am not saying people who don't Farcebook are any more intelligent, necessarily.

They are people who , I believe, are like newspaper readers are to television viewers --people of more depth -- and I mean that with no disrespect.

And they are people who need and want more depth, not less, in their lives.